Morocco’s World Cup Squad Shaken as Hamdallah Exits Amid Controversy

This is, in summary, what we have read on social networks, in recent days. We have the player, from the very high Saudi league, who left the selection, mentioning a pain in the back and pelvis. This is only a pretext, according to several sources within the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF). No back or pelvic pain. Nothing. The player even boycotted his appointment with the national team doctor, Abderazzak El Hifti, no doubt to avoid justifying himself. This also shows the respect he has for the officials of the Federation.

This departure would actually be due to a disagreement within the "Lions", in particular with the players playing abroad or those born in France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands. On social networks, they are described as "MRE who want to impose their law". They would thus form a clan where it is very difficult for newcomers to integrate, all the more so since the language spoken is not Arabic but very often French, Dutch and, of course, Spanish.

Abderrazak Hamdallah, therefore, also took it badly that he could not take the penalty against the Gambia team. This missed penalty is at the origin of several hashtags demanding the departure of the "French" Fayçal Fajr from the national team and of certain MRE who would like, it is said, to impose their law within the "Atlas Lions". It took Fajr to miss his penalty for him to be reminded of his status as a Moroccan from abroad and no longer that of a Moroccan player, period.

Others claim that the departure of the former Safi player would be due to an altercation with another MRE, Younès Belhanda, known to be very close to the coach, Hervé Renard. We should add the cold between the coach and Hamdallah, which lasted several months, until the intervention of the officials of the FRMF. The departure of this player from the national team is almost scripted and perhaps even premeditated.